Inside OpenAI's renewed push into robotics - Business Insider
OpenAI quietly scaled its robotics project over the past year. Around 100 workers collect data around the clock to teach robots how to perform household tasks. OpenAI previously explored robotics, but shut down its last program in 2020.
Key takeaways
The most recent developments in humanoid robotics show a rapid expansion of both commercial deployments and research breakthroughs. Agibot, the 2023‑founded company that shipped more than 5,100 units in 2025 and captured a 39 percent global market share, announced the launch of its embodied‑intelligence platform in Malaysia, marking the first of several Asia‑Pacific rollouts for 2026. In the United States, Fauna Robotics introduced “Sprout,” a 1‑meter‑tall, soft‑foam‑cushioned humanoid designed for home interaction and already being hand‑delivered to early customers such as Disney and Boston Dynamics, while Oversonic Robotics brought its cognitive humanoid “RoBee” to the U.S. market for healthcare and advanced‑manufacturing use. Hyundai, together with Boston Dynamics, confirmed plans to field thousands of Atlas AI‑powered humanoids at its Georgia EV plant beginning in 2028, though the company’s labor union warned that deployment will require collective‑bargaining agreements. At the Davos robotics forum, experts highlighted that the next hurdle for humanoids is robust perception and manipulation, noting the need for robots that can learn directly from human coworkers rather than rely on costly demos. OpenAI has quietly rebuilt a robotics lab in San Francisco, employing about 100 data collectors to teach a humanoid platform household tasks via tele‑operated Franka arms, and is preparing a second site in Richmond, California. Tesla’s Optimus humanoid is slated to move from factory prototypes to consumer sales by the end of 2026, with Elon Musk promising high reliability and applications in elder‑care and domestic assistance. Finally, 1X Technologies released a new “World Model” that lets its NEO humanoid learn tasks by watching videos, offering a subscription‑based service for household use, while Tesollo unveiled a lighter, 20‑degree‑of‑freedom DG‑5F‑S hand aimed at accelerating the commercial integration of dexterous humanoid manipulators.
OpenAI quietly scaled its robotics project over the past year. Around 100 workers collect data around the clock to teach robots how to perform household tasks. OpenAI previously explored robotics, but shut down its last program in 2020.
Last year, Sam Altman posited that the world hadn't yet had its "humanoid robots moment" — but, he said, "it's coming." In the background, his AI company has been gearing up to make that happen. OpenAI quietly built up a humanoid robotics lab over the past year, insiders with knowledge of the program told Business Insider. The lab operates out of the same building as the company's finance team in San Francisco, and employs around 100 data collectors. They're teaching a robotic arm how to perform household tasks as a part of a larger effort to build a humanoid robot.
OpenAI explored robotics during its early years and built a robotic hand capable of solving a Rubik's Cube. The company closed the project in 2020; a company spokesperson said at the time that it had chosen to "refocus the team on other projects."
The inner workings of the new robotics lab haven't been previously reported. In December, the company told employees it plans to open a second lab in Richmond, California. A December job posting for a "robotics operator" with the company's contracting agency lists Richmond as the location.
The lab has a humanoid robot that multiple people described as "iRobot-like" on display, but the bot is mostly collecting dust, and few have seen it in operation. The vast majority of the work in the lab is focused on teleoperating robotic arms.
OpenAI has data collectors using 3-D printed controllers, called GELLOs, to operate two Franka robots. These metal arms have pincers at the end and perform household tasks like putting bread in a toaster or folding laundry.
Mentioned in this article